A friend of mine gave me her pc to look at she's been having problems
with it running slow and freezing up. The first thing I'm trying to do
is do a diagnostics scan but I can't even get into the bios. F10 F2 on
start up and it goes strait to windows login. I know the keyboard is
working because I was able to type in login name and pass and then it
freezes after that. She has had a new hardrive put in a couple years
back, so there is no recovery drive or disc. Is there a way I can boot
this thing using usb or live cd? Is there anything at all I can try?

HP media center000
running winxp pro

"PostMaster" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7f720d3b-23c9-4d8a-8065-(E-Mail Removed)...
>A friend of mine gave me her pc to look at she's been having problems
> with it running slow and freezing up. The first thing I'm trying to do
> is do a diagnostics scan but I can't even get into the bios. F10 F2 on
> start up and it goes strait to windows login. I know the keyboard is
> working because I was able to type in login name and pass and then it
> freezes after that. She has had a new hardrive put in a couple years
> back, so there is no recovery drive or disc. Is there a way I can boot
> this thing using usb or live cd? Is there anything at all I can try?

Have you tried F1, DELETE and TAB, if F2 and F10 don't work to get into the
BIOS? (Although I think for HPs its normally F10 which you've tried ...)

>
> HP media center000
> running winxp pro

--
Brian Cryer
http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian

"Brian Cryer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ihrota$mbn$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "PostMaster" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:7f720d3b-23c9-4d8a-8065-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>A friend of mine gave me her pc to look at she's been having problems
>> with it running slow and freezing up. The first thing I'm trying to do
>> is do a diagnostics scan but I can't even get into the bios. F10 F2 on
>> start up and it goes strait to windows login. I know the keyboard is
>> working because I was able to type in login name and pass and then it
>> freezes after that. She has had a new hardrive put in a couple years
>> back, so there is no recovery drive or disc. Is there a way I can boot
>> this thing using usb or live cd? Is there anything at all I can try?
>
> Have you tried F1, DELETE and TAB, if F2 and F10 don't work to get into
> the BIOS? (Although I think for HPs its normally F10 which you've tried
> ...)
>
>>
>> HP media center000
>> running winxp pro
>
> --

Have you tried the ESC key?

In article <7f720d3b-23c9-4d8a-8065-(E-Mail Removed)>, PostMaster <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>A friend of mine gave me her pc to look at she's been having problems
>with it running slow and freezing up. The first thing I'm trying to do
>is do a diagnostics scan but I can't even get into the bios. F10 F2 on
>start up and it goes strait to windows login. I know the keyboard is
>working because I was able to type in login name and pass and then it
>freezes after that. She has had a new hardrive put in a couple years
>back, so there is no recovery drive or disc. Is there a way I can boot
>this thing using usb or live cd? Is there anything at all I can try?
>
>HP media center000
>running winxp pro
>

Try a PS2 type keyboard instead of a USB type to get into the bios.

PostMaster <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> A friend of mine gave me her pc to look at she's been having problems
> with it running slow and freezing up. The first thing I'm trying to do
> is do a diagnostics scan but I can't even get into the bios. F10 F2 on
> start up and it goes strait to windows login. I know the keyboard is
> working because I was able to type in login name and pass and then it
> freezes after that. She has had a new hardrive put in a couple years
> back, so there is no recovery drive or disc. Is there a way I can boot
> this thing using usb or live cd? Is there anything at all I can try?
>
> HP media center000
> running winxp pro

The Keyboard may be working but it's possible that you may hit the wrong
comination to access to CMOS setting.

If my memory ain't so bad, I think most computer use DEL key. Notebook
and some pre-built system may use different KEY

> * * * * The Keyboard may be working but it's possible that you may hit the wrong
> comination to access to CMOS setting.
>
> * * * * If my memory ain't so bad, I think most computer use DEL key. *Notebook
> and some pre-built system may use different KEY

Hey thanks for all the help. It took forever but I did get windows to
at least start up. For the most part I've got windows going at a
normal speed after cleaning out all the old AV anti-spy, ect. Replaced
it with MS security essentials did a virus scan cleaned out a couple
files. Once I get it up and running it seams to do OK but once you
turn this sucker off and restart it takes FOREVER to get to the login
then Forever again to load Desktop. And Like I said I can't get the
bios to come up, but once I give the desktop a couple minutes to
finish loading(once it finally comes up) it seams to do OK a little
lag but I'm used to zipping right along.

Why on gods green earth ppl don't keep the original OS disk or make
one I'll never figure out. Thats what this thing needs is to be
formatted. But I also wonder If there may be some kind of hardware
issue because of how long it takes to start up.

I'm going to try all the above posted suggestions to see if I can get
the bios up. If I could just run diagnostics scan on the hardware that
would help me to see if I'm just wasting my time with trying to patch
up the OS.

Thanks,
PM

On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:57:13 -0800, PostMaster wrote:

> Why on gods green earth ppl don't keep the original OS disk or make one
> I'll never figure out.

If you have a licence and the key for it, just download a copy of windows.

PostMaster <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> > * * * * The Keyboard may be working but it's possible that you may hit the wrong
> > comination to access to CMOS setting.
> >
> > * * * * If my memory ain't so bad, I think most computer use DEL key. *Notebook
> > and some pre-built system may use different KEY
>
> Hey thanks for all the help. It took forever but I did get windows to
> at least start up. For the most part I've got windows going at a
> normal speed after cleaning out all the old AV anti-spy, ect. Replaced
> it with MS security essentials did a virus scan cleaned out a couple
> files. Once I get it up and running it seams to do OK but once you
> turn this sucker off and restart it takes FOREVER to get to the login
> then Forever again to load Desktop. And Like I said I can't get the
> bios to come up, but once I give the desktop a couple minutes to
> finish loading(once it finally comes up) it seams to do OK a little
> lag but I'm used to zipping right along.
>
> Why on gods green earth ppl don't keep the original OS disk or make
> one I'll never figure out. Thats what this thing needs is to be
> formatted. But I also wonder If there may be some kind of hardware
> issue because of how long it takes to start up.
>
> I'm going to try all the above posted suggestions to see if I can get
> the bios up. If I could just run diagnostics scan on the hardware that
> would help me to see if I'm just wasting my time with trying to patch
> up the OS.
>
> Thanks,
> PM

If you can get Windows to start then I don't think it has much or anything
to do with CMOS. Slow Windows could relate to something (or combination) of
these

1. Bad anti-virus program, and especially have the [x]E-mail checking option
enable which often slow down the whole system.

2. Main drive (drive C doesn't have enough free disk space for swapping
and cause slowness. I would check and delete the TEMP files to free up some
junks

3. Check with Task Manager to see what else loaded in START-UP, and to see
which TSR eating system resource.

On Jan 28, 12:32*pm, Joel <J...@NoSpam.com> wrote:
> PostMaster <ngpos...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > * * * * The Keyboard may be working but it's possible that you may hit the wrong
> > > comination to access to CMOS setting.
>
> > > * * * * If my memory ain't so bad, I think most computer use DEL key. *Notebook
> > > and some pre-built system may use different KEY
>
> > Hey thanks for all the help. It took forever but I did get windows to
> > at least start up. For the most part I've got windows going at a
> > normal speed after cleaning out all the old AV anti-spy, ect. Replaced
> > it with MS security essentials did a virus scan cleaned out a couple
> > files. Once I get it up and running it seams to do OK but once you
> > turn this sucker off and restart it takes FOREVER to get to the login
> > then Forever again to load Desktop. And Like I said I can't get the
> > bios to come up, but once I give the desktop a couple minutes to
> > finish loading(once it finally comes up) it seams to do OK a little
> > lag but I'm used to zipping right along.
>
> > Why on gods green earth ppl don't keep the original OS disk or make
> > one I'll never figure out. Thats what this thing needs is to be
> > formatted. But I also wonder If there may be some kind of hardware
> > issue because of how long it takes to start up.
>
> > I'm going to try all the above posted suggestions to see if I can get
> > the bios up. If I could just run diagnostics scan on the hardware that
> > would help me to see if I'm just wasting my time with trying to patch
> > up the OS.
>
> > Thanks,
> > PM
>
> * * * * If you can get Windows to start then I don't think it hasmuch or anything
> to do with CMOS. *Slow Windows could relate to something (or combination) of
> these
>
> 1. Bad anti-virus program, and especially have the [x]E-mail checking option
> enable which often slow down the whole system.
>
> 2. Main drive (drive C doesn't have enough free disk space for swapping
> and cause slowness. *I would check and delete the TEMP files to free upsome
> junks
>
> 3. Check with Task Manager to see what else loaded in START-UP, and to see
> which TSR eating system resource.

Its funny you should type all that. Thats exactly what I've been doing
since yesterday. I scraped all the AV programs she had and replaced it
with MS security essentials and then. Cleaned out all the junk. I DL
Daves Multi-AV scan tool and scanned with all 5 vendors, deleted all
flagged files.

When I got it took almost an hour to go from power on to desktop. Now
it takes about a minute.
I'd still like to do a bios scan tho.


>If you have a licence and the key for it, just download a copy of windows.

I wish I knew how. I can't do it from HP site and when I called HP (As
soon as I said 2003) they got all rude they said they could not/would
not even "sell" me a copy for that comp. because the warranty had
expired. The MS site only offers updates for XP. I tried. I posted in
another group and I was told about the best I could do is find a used
OEM copy on ebay.

Thanks,
PM

In article <7f720d3b-23c9-4d8a-8065-(E-Mail Removed)>, PostMaster <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>A friend of mine gave me her pc to look at she's been having problems
>with it running slow and freezing up. The first thing I'm trying to do
>is do a diagnostics scan but I can't even get into the bios. F10 F2 on
>start up and it goes strait to windows login. I know the keyboard is
>working because I was able to type in login name and pass and then it
>freezes after that. She has had a new hardrive put in a couple years
>back, so there is no recovery drive or disc. Is there a way I can boot
>this thing using usb or live cd? Is there anything at all I can try?
>
>HP media center000
>running winxp pro
>
What is the correct model again? The post you made didnt make sense. I need
the exact HP model.

I can see if i can locate a recovery disk for you.